Health Shot

Gov. Eliot Spitzer will outline his health care plan at 1 p.m. at the Rockefeller Institute, and in his speech (according to the advance copy) he’ll vow that “From now on, health policy, not health politics, will guide us.”

If that sounds like an allusion to the state’s past deals with the powerful SEUI/1199 health care workers union, it is. Here’s Spitzer’s take on the dead-of-night deal in 2002 that meant billions for the union’s members:

The same lack of accountability has also been evident in the special subsidies the State gives hospitals to underwrite labor costs.Â In January 2002, with hundreds of millions in new revenue on the table for health care, the time was ripe for a debate on how best to invest this money.Â But instead of a public debate, the State committed billions of dollars in new spending to underwrite a portion of the increased costs of the hospitalsâ€™ pending labor agreement.Â

As a result of this deal, well over $3 billion alone was pumped into the health care delivery system with little to no accountability.Â Donâ€™t get me wrong: labor costs are real, and the need for training is real.Â What made this a poor choice instead of a wise investment is that the money was not based on the number of patients served and it didnâ€™t create a robust system of accountability for institutions that were growing out of control.Â